A Stroll in the Gallery: Duke Ellington in Paris

Herman Leonard. Duke Ellington at the Olympia Park Theater, Paris. 1958. Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans.

NPR (050707) featured an interview with Herman Leonard reminiscing about the jazz musicians he photographed over a 60-year career. The NPR web page includes photos and text:

Photographer Herman Leonard, 84, captured jazz giants like Billie Holiday and Miles Davis on film as they worked in smoky, cramped, late-night clubs. But he almost lost his amazing collection to Hurricane Katrina.

As the storm bore down on New Orleans, Leonard rushed most of his negatives to a vault at a museum near his home. However, thousands of his prints were lost to the flood waters.

Some of the photos that were salvaged went on display last month at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. And Leonard's latest book, Jazz, Giants and Journeys, includes a full collection of photos that span his long career.

Leonard tells Michele Norris he's grateful for what he was able to salvage from the storm, but much like favorite recipes, photographic prints never turn out the same way twice. He hasn't moved back to his home city of New Orleans, and says he'll live there again only if the city can regain some semblance of what it once was.